Spanish judge abandons probe into Franco's crimes

Judge Baltasar Garzon has pulled out of investigations into human rights crimes committed during the civil war and Franco dictatorship.

18 November 2008

MADRID - Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon reversed his decision to investigate into human rights crimes committed during the 1936-39 civil war and General Francisco Franco's ensuing dictatorship on Tuesday.

Franco and 44 of his collaborators could no longer be held legally responsible for the crimes because they are dead, Garzon said in a judicial resolution.

Garzon also said he was not responsible for investigating mass graves where Franco's opponents were buried. He transferred that responsibility to the authorities in regions where the graves were located.

On 16 October, the Spanish judge announced he would investigate the disappearances of 114,266 people at the request of families of the victims, many of whom are believed to be buried in mass graves.

Prosecutors had appealed against Garzon's investigation, arguing that Franco's crimes had been covered by the 1977 amnesty granted to his collaborators.

Franco, whose uprising sparked the civil war, ruled Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975.